CN112438033A

CN112438033A - Communication device, infrastructure device, and method

Info

Publication number: CN112438033A
Application number: CN201980048312.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 亚辛·阿登·阿瓦德; 申·霍恩格·翁; 示沢寿之; 维韦克·夏尔马; 马丁·沃里克·贝亚勒
Original assignee: Sony Corp
Current assignee: Sony Corp
Priority date: 2018-07-26
Filing date: 2019-07-18
Publication date: 2021-03-02
Also published as: US12010046B2; US20210281369A1; WO2020020734A1; EP3811552A1

Abstract

A communication device for communicating via a wireless access interface is provided. In one embodiment, a communication device includes a transceiver circuit and a controller circuit configured in combination to: receiving a signal using at least two bandwidth portions of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions at least partially overlap in frequency resources of the carrier bandwidth and in time resources of the wireless access interface; the signal is received via two of the at least two bandwidth parts and the signal received via each of the at least two bandwidth parts is decoded separately. In another embodiment, the wireless access interface includes a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions including a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions that are not always active, and the communication device includes transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to: receiving a signal using a non-default bandwidth portion; determining that a non-default bandwidth portion is deactivated; and preferentially receiving signals to the deactivated ones of the non-default bandwidth portions via other ones of the non-default bandwidth portions rather than receiving signals from the default bandwidth portions. In yet another embodiment, a communication device includes a transceiver circuit and a controller circuit configured in combination to: an indication of a capability of the transmitting communication device to receive or transmit signals using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface.

Description

Communication device, infrastructure device, and method

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a communication device and a method of operating a communication device for communicating via a wireless access interface divided into a plurality of bandwidth portions, wherein more than one bandwidth portion may be activated simultaneously for the communication device.

This application claims priority from the paris convention of european patent application No. 18185912.5, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Background

The "background" description provided herein is for the purpose of presenting the context of the disclosure in its entirety. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.

Third and fourth generation mobile telecommunications systems, such as those based on the 3GPP defined UMTS and Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture, are capable of supporting more sophisticated services than the simple voice and messaging services provided by previous generations of mobile telecommunications systems. For example, with the improved radio interface and enhanced data rates provided by LTE systems, users are able to enjoy high data rate applications, such as mobile video streaming and mobile video conferencing, previously available only via fixed line data connections. Thus, the need to deploy such networks is strong and it is expected that the coverage area (i.e., the geographical location where the network can be accessed) of these networks may increase even faster.

Future wireless communication networks are expected to routinely and efficiently support communication for a wider range of devices associated with and optimized to support a wider range of data traffic profiles and types than current systems. For example, future wireless communication networks are expected to desire to efficiently support communication with devices including reduced complexity devices, Machine Type Communication (MTC) devices, high resolution video displays, virtual reality headsets, and the like. Some of these different types of devices may be deployed in very large numbers, e.g., low complexity devices to support the "internet of things," and may be generally associated with the transmission of relatively small amounts of data with relatively high latency tolerances.

In view of this, future wireless communication networks (e.g., networks referred to as 5G or New Radio (NR) systems/new Radio Access Technology (RAT) systems, as well as future iterations/versions of existing systems) are expected to be expected to efficiently support the connection of a wide range of devices associated with different applications and different feature data traffic profiles.

Another embodiment of the new device is referred to as an ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) service, as its name implies, requiring data units or packets to be communicated with high reliability and low communication latency. Therefore, URLLC type of services represent a challenging embodiment of LTE type communication systems and 5G/NR communication systems.

The increased use of different types of terminal devices associated with different traffic profiles has led to an increase in new challenges for efficiently handling communications in wireless telecommunications systems that need to be addressed.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure can help solve or reduce at least some of the problems described above.

One embodiment of the present technology can provide a communication device for communicating via a wireless access interface, the communication device comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to: receiving a signal using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface; wherein the at least two bandwidth parts at least partly overlap in frequency resources of the carrier bandwidth and in time resources of the radio access interface; receiving a signal via two of the at least two bandwidth parts; and separately decoding the signal received via each of the at least two bandwidth parts.

Another embodiment of the present technology can provide a communication device for communicating via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions that are not always active, the communication device comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to: receiving a signal using a non-default bandwidth portion; confirming that a non-default bandwidth portion is deactivated; and preferentially receiving signals to the deactivated ones of the non-default bandwidth portions via other ones of the non-default bandwidth portions rather than accepting signals from the default bandwidth portions.

Yet another embodiment of the present technology can provide a communication device for communicating via a wireless access interface, the communication device comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to: an indication of the ability of the transmitting communication device to receive or transmit using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface.

Embodiments of the present technology further relate to infrastructure equipment, methods of operating communication devices and infrastructure equipment, and circuits for communication devices and infrastructure equipment that allow a communication device to transmit and receive signals via multiple bandwidth parts in a manner that allows for reduced power consumption by the communication device.

Corresponding aspects and features of the present disclosure are defined in the appended claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present technology are exemplary, but are not restrictive. The described embodiments, together with further advantages, may be best understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

A more complete appreciation of the present disclosure and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals designate the same or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

figure 1a schematically represents some aspects of an LTE-type wireless telecommunications system configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 1b schematically represents some aspects of a new Radio Access Technology (RAT) wireless telecommunications system configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of bandwidth adaptation and is reproduced from [4 ];

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of bandwidth adaptation where there are multiple active BWPs, in accordance with an embodiment of the present technique;

FIG. 4 illustrates the concept of having a primary BWP and a secondary BWP within a carrier system bandwidth, in accordance with embodiments of the present technique;

fig. 5 illustrates an example of a nested structure with a primary BWP and a secondary BWP within a carrier system bandwidth in accordance with a first embodiment of the present technique;

fig. 6 illustrates an example of a UE moving between active BWPs in accordance with a second embodiment of the present technology;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart representation of a method of operating a communication device in accordance with a first embodiment of the present technique;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart representation of a method of operating a communication device in accordance with a second embodiment of the present technique; and is

Fig. 9 is a flowchart representation of a method of operating a communication device in accordance with a third embodiment of the present technology.

Detailed Description

Long term evolution advanced radio access technology (4G)

Fig. 1a provides a schematic diagram illustrating some basic functions of a mobile telecommunications network/system 10 operating generally according to LTE principles, however, the mobile telecommunications network/system 10 may also support other radio access technologies and may be adapted to implement embodiments of the present disclosure described herein. The individual elements in fig. 1a and their respective modes of operation are known and defined in the relevant standards managed by the 3gpp (rtm) organization and are also described in many books on the subject (e.g., Holma h. and Toskala a [1 ]). It will be appreciated that operational aspects of the telecommunications network (e.g., relating to specific communication protocols and physical channels communicating between different elements) discussed herein, not specifically described, may be implemented according to any known technique (e.g., according to the relevant standards and known proposed modifications and additions to the relevant standards).

The network 10 comprises a plurality of base stations 11 connected to a core network 12. Each base station provides a coverage area 13 (i.e., a cell) capable of transmitting data to and from

terminal devices

14, 14. Data is transmitted from the base stations 11 to the terminal devices 14 within their respective coverage areas 13 via the radio Downlink (DL). Data is transmitted from the terminal device 14 to the base station 11 via the radio Uplink (UL). The core network 12 routes data to and from the terminal devices 14 via the respective base stations 11 and provides functions such as authentication, mobility management, charging, etc. A terminal device may also be referred to as a mobile base station, User Equipment (UE), user terminal, mobile radio, communication device, etc. A base station, which is an embodiment of a network infrastructure device/network access node, may also be referred to as a transceiving station/nodeB/e-nodeB/eNB/g-nodeB/gNB, etc. In view of this, different terms are typically associated with different generations of wireless telecommunication systems that provide elements of widely comparable functionality. However, particular embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented in different generations of wireless telecommunication systems, and for the sake of brevity, particular terminology may be used regardless of the underlying network architecture. That is, the use of a particular term in connection with a particular example implementation is not intended to imply that the implementation is limited to the particular generation of networks with which the particular term is most relevant.

New radio access technology (5G)

As described above, embodiments of the present invention can also be applied to advanced wireless communication systems such as those known as 5G or New Radio (NR) access technologies. The use cases considered for NR include:

enhanced Mobile Bandwidth (eMBB)

Large Scale machine type communication (mMTC)

Ultra-reliable & Low-latency communication (URLLC) [2]

The eMBB service is characterized by high capacity, with the requirement to support up to 20 Gb/s. URLLC has a requirement of 1-10 of one transmission of a 32 byte packet with a user plane delay of 1ms^-5(99.999%) reliability [3]。

The elements of the radio access network shown in fig. 1a may be equally applicable to a 5G new RAT configuration, but as described above, variations in terminology may be applied.

Fig. 1b is a schematic diagram illustrating a network architecture of a new RAT wireless mobile telecommunications network/system 30 based on a previously proposed scheme that may also be configured to provide functionality according to embodiments of the present disclosure described herein. The new RAT network 30 shown in fig. 1b comprises a first communication cell 20 and a second communication cell 21. The

communication cells

20, 21 each comprise a control node (central unit) 26, 28 communicating with the core network component 31 over respective wired or

wireless links

36, 38. The

respective control nodes

26, 28 each also communicate with a plurality of distributed units (radio access nodes/remote Transmission and Reception Points (TRPs)) 22, 24 in their respective cells. Again, these communications may be over respective wired or wireless links. The

distribution units

22, 24 are responsible for providing radio access interfaces for terminal devices connected to the network. The respective distributed

units

22, 24 have coverage areas (radio access footprints) that together define the coverage of the

respective communication cells

20, 21. Each distributed

unit

22, 24 includes a transceiver circuit 22a, 24a for transmitting and receiving wireless signals and a processor circuit 22b, 24b configured to control the respective distributed

unit

22, 24.

The core network component 31 of the new RAT telecommunication system represented in fig. 1b may be broadly considered to correspond to the core network 12 represented in fig. 1a in terms of broad top-level functionality, and the

respective control node

26, 28 and its associated distributed unit/

TRP

22, 24 may be broadly considered to provide functionality corresponding to the base station of fig. 1 a. The term "network infrastructure equipment/access node" may be used to cover these elements as well as the more common base station type elements of wireless telecommunication systems. Depending on the application in question, it is currently responsible for scheduling transmissions that have been scheduled on the radio interface between the respective distributed unit and the terminal device, in the control node/centralized unit and/or the distributed units/TRPs.

In fig. 1b, a terminal device 40 is shown located within the coverage area of the first communication cell 20. The terminal device 40 can thus exchange signalling with the first control node 26 in the first communication cell via one of the distributed units 22 associated with the first communication cell 20. In some cases, communications for a given end device are routed through only one distributed unit, however, it should be appreciated that in some other implementations, for example, in soft handoff scenarios and other scenarios, communications associated with a given end device may be routed through more than one distributed unit.

The particular distributed unit through which the terminal device is currently connected to the associated control node may be referred to as the active distributed unit of the terminal device. Thus, the active subset of distributed elements of the terminal device may comprise more than one distributed element (TRP). The control node 26 is responsible for determining which distributed units 22 across the first communication cell 20 are responsible for radio communication with the terminal device 40 at any given time (i.e. which distributed units are currently active distributed units of the terminal device). Typically this will be based on measurements of radio channel conditions between the terminal device 40 and some of the respective distributed units 22. In view of this, it should be appreciated that the subset of distributed elements in the cell currently active for the terminal device depends at least in part on the location of the terminal device within the cell (as this contributes significantly to the radio channel conditions existing between the terminal device and some of the respective distributed elements).

In at least some implementations, the distributed elements involved in routing communications from the terminal device to the control node (control element) are transparent to the terminal device 40. That is, in some cases, or even if any of the distributed units 22 is connected to the control node 26 and is fully involved in the routing of communications, the terminal device may not know which distributed unit is responsible for routing communications between the terminal device 40 and the control node 26 of the communication cell 20 in which the terminal device is currently operating. In this case, as long as the terminal device is involved, although it is possible to know the radio configuration transmitted through the distributed unit 22, only uplink data is transmitted to the control node 26 and downlink data is received from the control node 26, and the terminal device is not aware of the involved distributed unit 22. However, in other embodiments, the terminal device may know which distributed elements are involved in its communication. The handover and scheduling of one or more distributed units may be done at the network control node based on measurements of the distributed units of terminal device uplink signals or measurements made by the terminal device and reported to the control node via the one or more distributed units.

In the embodiment of fig. 1b, two

communication cells

20, 21 and one terminal device 40 are shown for simplicity, but it will of course be appreciated that in practice the system may comprise a larger number of communication cells (each supported by a respective control node and a plurality of distributed units) serving a larger number of terminal devices.

It should further be appreciated that fig. 1b represents only one embodiment of a proposed architecture of a new RAT telecommunications system in which a scheme according to the principles described herein may be employed, and that the functionality disclosed herein may also be applied regardless of wireless telecommunications systems having different architectures.

Thus, certain embodiments of the present disclosure discussed herein may be implemented in wireless telecommunications systems/networks according to various different architectures, such as the exemplary architectures shown in fig. 1a and 1 b.

Thus, it should be appreciated that the particular wireless telecommunications architecture in any given implementation is not of primary significance to the principles described herein. In view of this, in general, particular embodiments of the present disclosure may be described in the context of communication between a network infrastructure device/access node and a terminal device, where the specific nature of the network infrastructure device/access node and the terminal device depend on the network infrastructure of the implementation in question. For example, in some scenarios, the network infrastructure equipment/access node may comprise a base station, such as the LTE-type base station 11 shown in fig. 1a adapted to provide functionality according to the principles described herein, and in other embodiments the network infrastructure equipment may comprise a control unit/

control node

26, 28 and/or

TRP

22, 24 of the type shown in fig. 1b adapted to provide functionality according to the principles described herein.

Ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC)

Ultra-reliable low-delay communication (URLLC) service within 3GPP for 4G and 5G communication networks has recently been proposed. In some embodiments, URLLC communication is low latency (where the user plane delay measured from the ingress of layer 2 packets to the network egress is targeted at 1ms) or high reliability (where the acceptable error rate on URLLC transmission is 10^-5) Or both low delay and high reliabilityWhere both latency and reliability targets need to be met.

To achieve low latency and high reliability goals, various techniques have been proposed. Low latency can be achieved by one or more of the following techniques (which can be applied in combination):

short scheduling intervals. Transmissions can be scheduled at frequent intervals. The scheduling interval may be less than the duration of a slot of a frame (e.g., URLLC may be scheduled every 0.1ms, i.e., with a scheduling interval of 0.1ms, when the slot duration is 1 ms).

Short TTI. The Transmission Time Interval (TTI) of a URLLC transmission may consist of a small number of OFDM symbols (i.e., much less than the duration of a slot).

Instantaneous decoding format. The format of URLLC transmissions may be designed to allow "instantaneous decoding". For example, the reference symbol for channel estimation purposes may be located in the first OFDM symbol of a URLLC transmission and each OFDM symbol within the URLLC transmission can be decoded independently of the other OFDM symbols (e.g., one OFDM symbol contains the entire Forward Error Correction (FEC) codeword).

The above-mentioned short TTI can be referred to as a "mini-slot". The scheduling interval may also have a range of minislots.

High probability can be achieved by one or more of the following techniques (which can be applied in combination):

frequency diversity transmission: URLLC information is transmitted over a wide bandwidth, making these transmissions resilient to frequency selective fading.

Antenna diversity: antenna diversity makes URLLC transmissions resilient to frequency selective fading on some channels between the transmit and receive antennas.

Robust coding and modulation: using a strong forward error correction code and a robust modulation format will increase the resilience of URLLC transmissions to noise.

Hybrid ARQ: URLLC transmissions are protected by Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC). If the CRC indicates that the URLLC packet is incorrect, the receiver can notify the transmitter of the error and can retransmit the packet.

Repetition of: URLLC transmissions can be repeated, so if the initial reception of a packet fails, the second reception of the packet can be combined with the first reception of the packet to improve the effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received packet and allow decoding of the packet.

Packet replication: URLLC packets can be transmitted through two cells configured as Carrier Aggregation (CA) or Dual Connectivity (DC). Packet duplication is performed in the PDCP layers of CA and DC.

The reliability aspect of URLLC is currently addressed by using low coding rates (low spectral efficiency) for the control channel, high aggregation levels of LDPC codes, and support for multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver. Introducing a new CQI table with entries of low spectral efficiency enables URLLC to operate in a spectrally efficient manner, wherein the scheduled Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) can be selected to meet the reliability criteria of the current channel conditions. Furthermore, for multiplexing of eMBB and URLLC in the same time slot of Rel-15, URLLC has a higher priority than eMBB due to strict delay requirements. In this case, URLLC transmission can refrain from the existing transmission of eMBB in advance in the same time slot.

Furthermore, Rel-15 supports multiple bandwidth parts (BWPs) within the carrier bandwidth, where the bandwidth parts have different numerologies (such as subcarrier spacing, Cyclic Prefix (CP) length), however, for a UE, only one BWP is activated at a given time.

Bandwidth part (BWP)

The wireless access interface may use a carrier frequency (also defined herein as a carrier bandwidth) within the system bandwidth. The system bandwidth, which may be divided into an uplink part and a downlink part according to a frequency division duplex scheme, may include one or more bandwidth parts (BWPs). These BWPs are formed by grouping a plurality of consecutive Resource Blocks (RBs). In general, although there can be multiple BWPs within the carrier system bandwidth, where in Rel-15 each UE can semi-statically configure up to four BWPs, at most one BWP can be activated at any given time for a particular communication device.

Each BWP may be activated or deactivated independently of the others for a given communication device. However, the communication device may be limited in terms of the maximum number of BWPs that can be activated simultaneously. For a communication device, an active BWP refers to a BWP used to send data to or receive data from the communication device. Thus, the infrastructure device may schedule uplink or downlink transmissions for the communication device on any one of the BWPs that is currently active for the communication device. The nature of the wireless access interface between different BWPs may differ. For example, if the wireless access interface is based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, different BWPs may have different subcarrier spacing, symbol period, and/or cyclic prefix length. BWPs may have different bandwidths.

By appropriately configuring BWP, infrastructure devices may provide BWP that is appropriate for different types of services. For example, BWPs that are more suitable for eMBB may have a larger bandwidth in order to support high data rates. BWP suitable for URLLC services may use higher subcarrier spacing and shorter slot duration to allow lower latency transmissions. The parameters of the wireless access interface (subcarrier spacing, symbol and slot duration, cyclic prefix length) applicable to BWP may be collectively referred to as BWP numerology.

In Rel-15, using BWP, a communication device (employing Bandwidth Adaptation (BA) to receive or transmit data as needed) reduces its power consumption by operating using only the range of carrier frequencies within the active BWP, which may be much smaller than the system bandwidth. Such a reduction in power consumption may be particularly beneficial for power-limited devices, such as battery-powered devices, and in particular, for devices such as Machine Type Communication (MTC) devices that are not easily rechargeable.

When the UE has a large amount of data to receive and/or transmit, the bandwidth of the wide frequency channel (i.e., BWP with greater bandwidth, covering more frequency resources of the wireless access interface) is enabled (i.e., activated), while in case of transmitting and/or receiving a small amount of data (i.e., low activity or idle), a narrower BWP is activated. Prior to activation, the UE may have been pre-configured with multiple BWPs (up to 4) within the carrier system bandwidth. Features of BWPs such as their numerology may differ across different BWPs to enable the system to efficiently handle different services (e.g., eMBB, URLLC). In Rel-15, Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) is supported only for BWP, as shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows how three BWPs (BWP1, BWP2, and BWP3) can be supported, but never simultaneously. First, BWP1 is active 211. When BWP1 is deactivated, BWP2 becomes active 221. This pattern is then followed by activation of BWP 3231 before again activating BWP 2222 and BWP 1212 individually.

According to different numerologies applicable to BWP, a single active BWP may not be suitable for transmission of data associated with different services if these different services have different requirements (e.g., latency requirements) or characteristics (e.g., bandwidth/data rate). For example, the service may include the eMBB and URLLC, which may be configured with different subcarrier spacing (SCS) of 15KHz and 60KHz, respectively, for example. Thus, the possibility of activating multiple BWPs for a single communication device has been considered. However, in scenarios where the communication device supports multiple active BWPs simultaneously in the same direction (i.e. uplink or downlink), and in particular where the communication device supports up to a predetermined number of active BWPs simultaneously in each direction, there is currently no mechanism to allow activation and/or deactivation of BWPs.

Power saving techniques for multiple active BWP in NR

Embodiments of the present technology allow for Frequency Domain Multiplexing (FDM) of different services, such as eMBB and URLLC, to be supported by activating multiple BWPs for a single communication device. In principle, BWPs with the same numerology need to be activated at the same time for this purpose, although in future use cases BWPs with different numerologies can also be activated if desired. When multiple BWPs are activated simultaneously, different implementations are possible that take into account the organization of the BWPs to reduce the power consumption of the UE.

In future wireless telecommunication systems, the concept of Bandwidth Adaptation (BA) is directly broadened to a plurality of active BWPs, e.g. in case more than two BWPs are active at a given time as shown in fig. 3. In this scenario, the UE is configured with three BWPs, BWP1, BWP2, and BWP3, where BWP2 is selected as the default BWP 320. Initially, BWP 1311 and BWP 3331 are activated for receiving different services such as eMBB and URLLC, respectively, for example. It can be seen that when BWP 1311 is not activated, i.e., after expiration of the inactivity timer, the UE switches to the default BWP 2320. However, BWP 3331 still has active data transmission to the UE. Over time, BWP 3331 also becomes inactive, and therefore the UE only returns to default BWP 320. Thereafter, BWP 3332 may be activated again, and then BWP 1312 activated and default BWP 2320 deactivated. From a signaling perspective, in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 3, BWP1 is associated with a default BWP (i.e., BWP2) using RRC signaling and/or DCI signaling. BWP3 is separate from the different numerologies and BWP3 can also be activated as an additional BWP using RRC signaling and/or DCI signaling.

Further, as shown in fig. 4, in some manner, one active BWP may be defined as a primary BWP in the serving cell and the other BWPs may be defined as secondary BWPs at all times. The primary BWP 420 is always active and the UE receives control and data transmissions on the primary active BWP 420 in addition to other secondary BWPs. From a power saving perspective, only the secondary BWP is activated when there is a large amount of data transmission or when different services requiring different numerologies are available.

As can be seen in fig. 4, BWP 2420 is considered to be always active even though BWP 1410 and BWP 3430 are active for receiving data transmissions. Upon expiration of the inactivity timer, BWP 1410 and BWP 3430 are deactivated, or BWP 1410 and BWP 3430 are explicitly deactivated by the network via RRC signaling or DCI signaling. The BPW 2420 (i.e., the master BWP) has no inactivity timer and can only switch to a different BWP over the network (e.g., via RRC signaling). That is, the primary BWP does not have an inactivity timer, while the secondary BWP does. Accordingly, the UE may receive all common control information (i.e., common DCI) on the primary BWP, while some UE-specific DCI can be received on secondary BWPs other than the primary BWP.

Fig. 5 illustrates an example of a nested structure with a primary BWP 520 and a secondary BWP 510 in a carrier system bandwidth in accordance with a first embodiment of the present technology. According to this first embodiment, a communication device for communicating with one or more infrastructure devices of a wireless communication network via a wireless access interface is provided. The communication device comprises transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry (e.g. which may be a microprocessor, CPU, or dedicated chipset, etc.) configured in combination to receive signals from one infrastructure device using at least two of a plurality of

bandwidth portions

510, 520, 530 of the wireless access interface, the

respective bandwidth portions

510, 520, 530 being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, wherein the at least two

bandwidth portions

510, 520 at least partially overlap 540 over frequency resources of the carrier bandwidth and time resources of the wireless access interface to receive signals via the at least two

bandwidth portions

510, 520 and to separately decode signals received via each of the at least two

bandwidth portions

510, 520.

Basically, according to the first embodiment, for a plurality of active BWPs in NR, if primary active BWPs with similar numerology are nested with secondary BWPs, the UE can receive these BWPs simultaneously. Alternatively, the UE may receive one of the two activated BWPs prioritized between them. In other words, the at least two bandwidth parts comprise a primary bandwidth part and at least one secondary bandwidth part. Here, the controller circuit is configured to select one of the primary and secondary bandwidth parts for receiving or transmitting signals from or to the infrastructure equipment, or the transceiver circuit and controller circuit are configured in combination to receive an indication of one of the primary and secondary bandwidth parts for receiving or transmitting signals from or to the infrastructure equipment. As described above with reference to fig. 4, only at least one secondary bandwidth portion has an inactivity timer associated therewith. Those skilled in the art will recognize that some embodiments of the present technology may include a primary BWP without an inactivity timer and one or more secondary BWPs each with an inactivity timer, where no BWPs are nested as shown in fig. 5.

In general, it is feasible for the master BWP to overlap in frequency with other BWPs, and therefore, as shown in fig. 5, the master active BWP can be nested with the larger secondary BWP (assuming both have similar numerology) to enable the UE to receive both simultaneously during overlapping transmissions in the same baseband processing (in shaded portion 540, BWP 1510 overlaps BWP 2520).

Further, for the nested configuration shown in fig. 5:

a) the UE is able to process each BWP separately in baseband. That is, the UE can decode each control channel at the UE individually, and the gbnodeb schedules time and frequency resources by avoiding collisions and collisions;

b) alternatively, the UE preferentially receives all control information (including control information carried by a smaller BWP) only from a larger BWP (primary BWP or secondary BWP) due to giving the UE a greater throughput. In this case, if two BWPs have the same (or similar) numerology, the network can align the position and size of the CORESET (control resource) configuration of the larger BWP with the position and size of the smaller BWP. This means that two CORESETs are located on top of each other, where all configuration parameters are exactly the same, such as time and frequency domain resources, staggered shift (n)_shift) DMRS sequence generation (including subcarrier reference point or subcarrier 0 of the smallest coded common resource block in CORESET) such that the UE can see only one CORESET configuration. This is useful for receiving some common control information within the larger BWP (i.e., typically sent within the smaller initial BWP), such as system information and paging. In other words, the at least two bandwidth parts include a primary bandwidth part and at least one secondary bandwidth part, the primary bandwidth part and the at least one secondary bandwidth part having the same numerology (i.e., the numerology is one or more of subcarrier spacing, symbol and slot duration, and cyclic prefix length), and the transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry are configured in combination to decode a signal (e.g., system information and/or paging) received via a larger bandwidth part of the at least two bandwidth parts, the signalOn overlapping frequency resources of a smaller one of the at least two bandwidth portions and a larger one of the bandwidth portions; or

c) Alternatively, the UE receives only the primary BWP since the primary BWP may carry some critical common information, such as system information, Random Access Response (RAR), or power control related information.

Fig. 6 shows an example of UE moving between active BWPs according to a second embodiment of the present technology using the concept of default BWPs and non-default BWPs. According to this second embodiment there is a communication device for communicating with one or more infrastructure devices of a wireless communication network via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of

bandwidth portions

610, 620, 630, each

bandwidth portion

610, 620, 630 being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion 620 and at least two

non-default bandwidth portions

610, 630 which are not always active. The communication device includes transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry (e.g., which may be a microprocessor, a CPU, or a dedicated chipset, etc.) configured in combination to: receiving a signal from an infrastructure device using the

non-default bandwidth portions

610, 630 to confirm that one of the non-default bandwidth portions 610 is deactivated; and preferentially receives signals to the deactivated ones 610 of the non-default bandwidth portions via the other ones 630 of the non-default bandwidth portions rather than accepting signals from the default bandwidth portions 620.

Basically, according to the second embodiment, for a plurality of active BWPs in the NR, when the active BWPs are deactivated at inactivity timer expiration or by DCI signaling or RRC signaling, and if at least another non-default BWP is active, the UE does not move to the default BWP in order to avoid wasting power by operating the default BWP simultaneously with another non-default BWP.

As described above, when BWP is deactivated, the UE may return to the default BWP even if another BWP is active. According to the second embodiment described above with reference to fig. 6, this operation can be enhanced by not moving to the default BWP and thus not wasting power operating on both active BWPs at the same time when the active BWP expires (becomes deactivated) and if the other BWP is active. In general, the difference between the master BWP and the default BWP is that the master BWP is never deactivated, whereas the default BWP is deactivated due to some criteria. Typically, the default BWP is narrower than the non-default BWP to allow for reduced power consumption of the UE if the UE returns when there is no data associated with a service using a higher bandwidth that is not the default BWP.

As described above, the UE is shown in fig. 6 configured as three

BWPs

610, 620, 630, from which selection BWP 2620 is the default BWP. Initially, BWP 1610 and BWP 3630 are activated, for example, for receiving different services such as URLLC of BWP 1610 and BWP 3630. BWP 3630 still has data transmission to the UE when BWP 1610 is not activated, therefore in this case BWP 1610 should be deactivated (UE determines this based on inactivity timer associated with BWP1 expiration or RRC signaling/DCI signaling received from the network) and the UE should continue to receive data on BWP 3630. Thus, power savings is achieved by not returning to default BWP 2620 when BWP 1610 is deactivated, as long as BWP 3630 is still active.

Subsequently, when there is no data transmission on BWP 3630 and the timer expires, the UE then switches to default BWP 2620 (note that at this point all timers for all

secondary BWPs

610, 630 have expired). That is, when all other

active BWPs

610, 630 are deactivated, e.g. due to inactivity timer expiration or by DCI signaling or RRC signaling, only the default BWP 620 is activated. Thus, if the inactivity timers of all non-default and active BWPs expire, the UE switches BWP to the default BWP. In other words, the transceiver circuitry and the controller circuitry are configured in combination to determine that all non-default bandwidth portions are deactivated and to determine that signals are received via the default bandwidth portions.

According to a third embodiment, the UE may indicate to the network/gnnodeb that it is capable of receiving and transmitting multiple active BWPs through the transmission of signaling information. According to this third embodiment, a communication device for communicating with one or more infrastructure devices of a wireless communication network via a wireless access interface is provided. The communication device includes transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry (e.g., which may be a microprocessor, a CPU, or a dedicated chipset, etc.) configured in combination to: transmitting to one infrastructure device an indication of a capability of the communication device to receive or transmit signals from or to the infrastructure device using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface.

In order for the network to be able to configure and activate multiple BWPs for the UE, the UE should indicate to the network or the gNB whether it is able to receive and transmit multiple BWPs. This capability can be indicated in signaling alone or in combination with other UE features. Furthermore, the UE can indicate a maximum number of simultaneous BWPs and configurable BWPs within the UE capability. The maximum number of simultaneous BWPs should be less than or equal to the maximum number of configurable BWPs. In other words, the indication of the capability of the communication device to receive signals from or transmit signals to the infrastructure equipment using the at least two bandwidth parts comprises: at least one of a first number indicating a maximum number of bandwidth portions that the communication device is capable of using simultaneously to receive signals from or transmit signals to the infrastructure equipment, and a second number indicating a maximum number of bandwidth portions that the communication device is capable of being configured to receive signals from or transmit signals to the infrastructure equipment, the second number being greater than or equal to the first number.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that the communication device may operate in accordance with any one, two, or all of the three embodiments of the present technology described above. For example, the communication device may receive multiple nested BWPs from the network simultaneously after indicating to the network that it is capable of doing so, and/or the communication device may refrain from switching to a default BWP if feasible when there is an active non-default BWP.

Flow chart representation

Fig. 7 shows a flow chart illustrating a method of operating a communication device for communicating with one or more infrastructure devices of a wireless communication network via a wireless access interface in accordance with a first embodiment of the present technique.

The method starts at step S71. The method comprises the following steps: in step S72, a signal is received from one infrastructure device using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions at least partially overlap in frequency resources of the carrier bandwidth and in time resources of the wireless access interface. In step S73, the process includes: the signal is received via two of the at least two bandwidth parts. Then, the method proceeds to step S74, including: the signal received via each of the at least two bandwidth parts is decoded separately. The process ends at step S75.

Fig. 8 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method of operating a communication device for communicating with one or more infrastructure devices of a wireless communication network via a wireless access interface in accordance with a second embodiment of the present technology. The wireless access interface includes a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions including a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions that are not always active.

The method starts at step S81. The method comprises the following steps: in step S82, a signal is received from an infrastructure device using the non-default bandwidth portion. In step S83, the process includes: it is determined that a non-default bandwidth portion is deactivated. Then, the method proceeds to step S84, including: preferentially receiving signals to the deactivated ones of the non-default bandwidth portions via other ones of the non-default bandwidth portions rather than receiving signals from the default bandwidth portions. The process ends at step S85.

Fig. 9 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method of operating a communication device for communicating with one or more infrastructure devices of a wireless communication network via a wireless access interface in accordance with a third embodiment of the present technology.

The method starts at step S91. The method comprises the following steps: in step S92, an indication of the ability of the communication device to receive signals from or transmit signals to infrastructure equipment using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within the carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, is transmitted to one infrastructure equipment. The process ends at step S93.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that the method illustrated by any of fig. 7-9 may be adapted in accordance with embodiments of the present technique. For example, other intermediate steps may be included in the method, or steps may be performed in any logical order. Further, as described above, those skilled in the art will recognize that the communication device may operate according to any one, two, or all of the above methods described by fig. 7-9.

Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that the infrastructure equipment and/or communication equipment defined herein may be further defined in accordance with the various arrangements and embodiments discussed in the preceding paragraphs. Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that the infrastructure equipment and communication equipment defined and described herein may form part of a communication system other than those defined by the present invention.

Thus, a communication device for communicating with one or more infrastructure devices of a wireless communication network via a wireless access interface has been described. In one embodiment, a communication device includes a transceiver circuit and a controller circuit configured in combination to: receiving signals from one infrastructure equipment using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions are on frequency resources of the carrier bandwidth and time resources of the wireless access interface to receive signals via both of the at least two bandwidth portions at least partially overlapping and to decode signals received via each of the at least two bandwidth portions separately. In another embodiment, the wireless access interface includes a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions including a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions that are not always active, and the communication device includes transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to: receiving a signal from an infrastructure device using a non-default bandwidth portion; determining that a non-default bandwidth portion is deactivated; and preferentially receiving signals to the deactivated ones of the non-default bandwidth portions via other ones of the non-default bandwidth portions rather than receiving signals from the default bandwidth portions. In yet another embodiment, a communication device includes a transceiver circuit and a controller circuit configured in combination to: transmitting an indication of a capability of the communication device to receive signals from or transmit signals to infrastructure equipment using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, to one infrastructure equipment.

The following numbered items provide further exemplary aspects and features of the present technology:

a communication device for communicating via a wireless access interface, the communication device comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

receiving a signal using at least two bandwidth portions of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions at least partially overlap in frequency resources of the carrier bandwidth and in time resources of the wireless access interface;

receiving a signal via two of the at least two bandwidth parts; and is

The signal received via each of the at least two bandwidth parts is decoded separately.

The communication device of item 1, wherein the at least two bandwidth parts comprise a primary bandwidth part and at least one secondary bandwidth part, and the controller circuit is configured to select one of the primary bandwidth part and the secondary bandwidth part for receiving or transmitting signals.

The communication device of item 1 or item 3, wherein the at least two bandwidth parts comprise a primary bandwidth part and at least one secondary bandwidth part, and the transceiver circuit and the controller circuit are configured in combination to receive an indication of one of the primary bandwidth part and the secondary bandwidth part for receiving or transmitting a signal.

Item 4. the communication device of any one of items 1 to 3, wherein the at least two bandwidth parts comprise a primary bandwidth part and at least one secondary bandwidth part, wherein only the at least one secondary bandwidth part has an inactivity timer associated therewith.

Item 5. the communication device of any one of items 1 to 4, wherein the at least two bandwidth parts comprise a primary bandwidth part and at least one secondary bandwidth part, the primary bandwidth part and the at least one secondary bandwidth part having the same numerology, and the transceiver circuit and the controller circuit are configured in combination to decode a signal received via a larger bandwidth part of the at least two bandwidth parts, the signal being located on overlapping frequency resources of the smaller bandwidth part and the larger bandwidth part of the at least two bandwidth parts.

Item 6 the communication device of any one of items 1 to 5, wherein the signal is received via two of the at least two bandwidth parts simultaneously.

A communications device for communicating via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions that are not always active, the communications device comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

receiving a signal using a non-default bandwidth portion;

determining that a non-default bandwidth portion is deactivated; and is

Preferentially receiving signals to the deactivated ones of the non-default bandwidth portions via other ones of the non-default bandwidth portions rather than receiving signals from the default bandwidth portions.

The communication device of item 8, wherein the transceiver circuitry and the controller circuitry are configured, in combination, to:

determining that all non-default bandwidth portions are deactivated; and is

The signal is received via the default bandwidth portion.

Item 9 the communication device of item 7 or item 8, wherein the determination is made based on expiration of one or more inactivity timers each associated with a non-default portion of bandwidth.

The communication device of any of items 7 to 9, wherein the determination is made based on receiving radio resource control, RRC, signaling.

Item 11 the communication device of any of items 7 to 10, wherein the determination is made based on receiving downlink control information, DCI, signaling.

Item 12 the communication device of any of items 7 to 11, wherein the determination is made based on receiving media access control, MAC, control entity, MAC-CE, signaling.

The communication device of any of items 7 to 12, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions at least partially overlap in frequency resources of the carrier bandwidth and time resources of the wireless access interface, and the transceiver circuitry and the controller circuitry are configured in combination to:

receiving a signal via two of the at least two bandwidth parts; and is

The communication device of item 14. the communication device of item 13, wherein the at least two bandwidth parts comprise a primary bandwidth part and at least one secondary bandwidth part, and the controller circuit is configured to select one of the primary bandwidth part and the secondary bandwidth part for receiving or transmitting signals.

The communication device of item 15. the communication device of item 13 or item 14, wherein the at least two bandwidth parts comprise a primary bandwidth part and at least one secondary bandwidth part, and the transceiver circuit and the controller circuit are configured in combination to receive an indication of one of the primary bandwidth part and the secondary bandwidth part for receiving or transmitting a signal.

The communication device of any of items 13 to 15, wherein the at least two bandwidth parts comprise a primary bandwidth part and at least one secondary bandwidth part, wherein only the at least one secondary bandwidth part has an inactivity timer associated therewith.

The communication device of any of items 13 to 16, wherein the at least two bandwidth parts comprise a primary bandwidth part and at least one secondary bandwidth part, the primary bandwidth part and the at least one secondary bandwidth part having the same numerology, and the transceiver circuitry and the controller circuitry are configured in combination to decode a signal received via a larger bandwidth part of the at least two bandwidth parts, the signal being located on overlapping frequency resources of the smaller bandwidth part and the larger bandwidth part of the at least two bandwidth parts.

The communication device of any of items 13 to 17, wherein the signal is received via two of the at least two bandwidth parts simultaneously.

The communication device of any of items 7 to 18, wherein the transceiver circuitry and the controller circuitry are configured, in combination, to:

prior to receiving a signal using the at least two bandwidth parts, an indication of a capability of the transmitting communication device to receive or transmit a signal using the at least two bandwidth parts is transmitted.

The communication device of item 20. the communication device of item 19, wherein the indication of the ability of the communication device to receive or transmit signals using at least two bandwidth parts comprises: at least one of a first number indicating a maximum number of bandwidth portions that the communication device is capable of simultaneously using to receive or transmit signals, and a second number indicating a maximum number of bandwidth portions that are configurable to be used by the communication device to receive or transmit signals, the second number being greater than or equal to the first number.

an indication of a capability of the transmitting communication device to receive or transmit signals using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface.

The communication device of item 22. the communication device of item 21, wherein the indication of the ability of the communication device to receive or transmit signals using at least two bandwidth parts comprises: at least one of a first number indicating a maximum number of bandwidth portions that the communication device is capable of simultaneously using to receive or transmit signals, and a second number indicating a maximum number of bandwidth portions that are configurable to be used by the communication device to receive or transmit signals, the second number being greater than or equal to the first number.

An item 23. a method of operating a communication device that communicates via a wireless access interface, the method comprising:

receiving a signal via two of the at least two bandwidth parts; and is

A circuit for a communication device for communicating via a wireless access interface, the communication device comprising a transceiver circuit and a controller circuit configured in combination to:

receiving a signal via two of the at least two bandwidth parts; and is

A method of a communication device for communicating via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions that are not always active, the method comprising:

receiving a signal using a non-default bandwidth portion;

determining that a non-default bandwidth portion is deactivated; and is

A circuit for a communication device communicating via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions that are not always active, the communication device comprising a transceiver circuit and a controller circuit, the transceiver circuit and the controller circuit configured in combination to:

receiving a signal using a non-default bandwidth portion;

determining that a non-default bandwidth portion is deactivated; and is

A method of operating a communication device that communicates via a wireless access interface, the method comprising:

An infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

transmitting a signal to a communication device using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions at least partially overlap in frequency resources of the carrier bandwidth and in time resources of the wireless access interface, and wherein the signals are separately decoded.

An item 30. a method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the method comprising:

An item 31. circuitry of an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

An infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions which are not always active, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

transmitting the signal to a communication device using the non-default bandwidth portion;

deactivating a non-default bandwidth portion; and is

Rather than sending the signal via the default bandwidth portion, the deactivated ones of the non-default bandwidth portions are preferentially sent via other ones of the non-default bandwidth portions.

A method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions which are not always active, the method comprising:

deactivating a non-default bandwidth portion; and is

A circuit for an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions which are not always active, the infrastructure equipment comprising a transceiver circuit and a controller circuit, the transceiver circuit and the controller circuit being configured in combination to:

deactivating a non-default bandwidth portion; and is

An infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

an indication of a capability of the communication device to receive or transmit signals from or to the infrastructure equipment using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface is received from one communication device, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface.

An item 36. a method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the method comprising:

An infrastructure equipment circuit for forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the infrastructure equipment comprising a transceiver circuit and a controller circuit, the transceiver circuit and the controller circuit being configured in combination to:

Thus far, in embodiments of the present disclosure described as being implemented at least in part by software-controlled data processing apparatus, it should be recognized that non-volatile machine-readable media, such as optical disks, magnetic disks, semiconductor memory, etc., carrying such software, are also considered to represent embodiments of the present disclosure.

It will be appreciated that for clarity, embodiments have been described above with reference to different functional units, circuits, and/or processors. It will be apparent, however, that any suitable distribution of functionality between different functional units, circuits, and/or processors may be used without detracting from the embodiment.

The described embodiments may be implemented in any suitable way including hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. Alternatively, the described embodiments may be implemented at least partly as computer software running on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors. The elements and components of any implementation may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units. Thus, the disclosed embodiments may be implemented in a single unit or may be physically and functionally distributed between different units, circuits, and/or processors.

Although the present disclosure has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form set forth herein. Furthermore, although features may appear to be described in connection with particular embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that various features of the described embodiments may be combined in any manner that is suitable for implementation of the techniques.

Reference to the literature

[1]Holma H.and Toskala A,“LTE for UMTS OFDMA and SC-FDMA based radio access”,John Wiley and Sons,2009.

[2]RP-172834,“Revised WID on New Radio Access Technology,”NTT DOCOMO,RAN#78.

[3]TR 38.913,“Study on Scenarios and Requirements for Next Generation Access Technologies(Release 14)”,3rd Generation Partnership Project.

[4]TS 38.300,“NR；Overall Description；Stage-2(Release 15)”,3rd Generation Partnership Project.

Claims

1. A communication device to communicate via a wireless access interface, the communication device comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

receiving signals using at least two bandwidth portions of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions at least partially overlap in frequency resources of the carrier bandwidth and in time resources of the wireless access interface;

receiving the signal via two of the at least two bandwidth parts; and is

Separately decoding the signal received via each of the at least two bandwidth parts.

2. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions comprise a primary bandwidth portion and at least one secondary bandwidth portion, and the controller circuit is configured to select one of the primary bandwidth portion and the secondary bandwidth portion for receiving or transmitting signals.

3. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions comprise a primary bandwidth portion and at least one secondary bandwidth portion, and the transceiver circuit and the controller circuit are configured in combination to receive an indication of one of the primary bandwidth portion and the secondary bandwidth portion to receive or transmit a signal.

4. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the at least two bandwidth parts comprise a primary bandwidth part and at least one secondary bandwidth part, wherein only the at least one secondary bandwidth part has an inactivity timer associated with the at least one secondary bandwidth part.

5. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions comprise a primary bandwidth portion and at least one secondary bandwidth portion, the primary bandwidth portion and the at least one secondary bandwidth portion having the same numerology, and the transceiver circuitry and the controller circuitry are configured in combination to decode a signal received via a larger bandwidth portion of the at least two bandwidth portions, the signal being located on overlapping frequency resources of a smaller bandwidth portion of the at least two bandwidth portions and the larger bandwidth portion.

6. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the signal is received via two of the at least two bandwidth parts simultaneously.

7. A communications device for communicating via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions that are not always active, the communications device comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

receiving a signal using the non-default bandwidth portion;

determining that one of the non-default bandwidth portions is deactivated; and is

Preferentially receiving the signal via other ones of the non-default bandwidth portions to deactivated ones of the non-default bandwidth portions instead of receiving the signal via the default bandwidth portions.

8. The communication device of claim 7, wherein the transceiver circuit and the controller circuit are configured, in combination, to:

determining that all of the non-default bandwidth portions are deactivated; and is

Receiving the signal via the default bandwidth portion.

9. The communication device of claim 7, wherein the determination is made based on expiration of one or more inactivity timers each associated with one of the non-default portions of bandwidth.

10. The communication device of claim 7, wherein the determination is made based on receiving Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

11. The communication device of claim 7, wherein the determination is made based on receiving downlink control information, DCI, signaling.

12. The communication device of claim 7, wherein the determination is made based on receiving media access control, MAC, control entity, MAC-CE, signaling.

13. The communication device of claim 7, wherein at least two bandwidth portions at least partially overlap in frequency resources of the carrier bandwidth and time resources of the wireless access interface, and the transceiver circuitry and the controller circuitry are configured, in combination, to:

receiving the signal via two of the at least two bandwidth parts; and is

14. The communication device of claim 13, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions comprise a primary bandwidth portion and at least one secondary bandwidth portion, and the controller circuit is configured to select one of the primary bandwidth portion and the secondary bandwidth portion for receiving or transmitting the signal.

15. The communication device of claim 13, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions comprise a primary bandwidth portion and at least one secondary bandwidth portion, and the transceiver circuit and the controller circuit are configured in combination to receive an indication of one of the primary bandwidth portion and the secondary bandwidth portion to receive or transmit the signal.

16. The communication device of claim 13, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions comprise a primary bandwidth portion and at least one secondary bandwidth portion, wherein only the at least one secondary bandwidth portion has an inactivity timer associated with the at least one secondary bandwidth portion.

17. The communication device of claim 13, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions comprise a primary bandwidth portion and at least one secondary bandwidth portion, the primary bandwidth portion and the at least one secondary bandwidth portion having the same numerology, and the transceiver circuitry and the controller circuitry are configured in combination to decode a signal received via a larger bandwidth portion of the at least two bandwidth portions, the signal being located on overlapping frequency resources of a smaller bandwidth portion of the at least two bandwidth portions and the larger bandwidth portion.

18. The communication device of claim 13, wherein the signal is received via two of the at least two bandwidth parts simultaneously.

19. The communication device of claim 7, wherein the transceiver circuit and the controller circuit are configured, in combination, to:

transmitting an indication of the ability of the communication device to receive or transmit the signal using at least two bandwidth parts before receiving the signal using the at least two bandwidth parts.

20. The communication device of claim 19, wherein the indication of the capability of the communication device to receive or transmit the signal using the at least two bandwidth parts comprises: at least one of a first number indicating a maximum number of the bandwidth parts that the communication device is capable of using simultaneously to receive or transmit the signal, and a second number indicating a maximum number of the bandwidth parts that are configurable to be used by the communication device to receive or transmit the signal, the second number being greater than or equal to the first number.

21. A communication device to communicate via a wireless access interface, the communication device comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

transmitting an indication of a capability of the communication device to receive or transmit signals using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface.

22. The communication device of claim 21, wherein the indication of the capability of the communication device to receive or transmit the signal using the at least two bandwidth parts comprises: at least one of a first number indicating a maximum number of the bandwidth parts that the communication device is capable of using simultaneously to receive or transmit the signal, and a second number indicating a maximum number of the bandwidth parts that are configurable to be used by the communication device to receive or transmit the signal, the second number being greater than or equal to the first number.

23. A method of operating a communication device that communicates via a wireless access interface, the method comprising:

receiving the signal via two of the at least two bandwidth parts; and is

24. Circuitry for a communication device for communicating via a wireless access interface, the communication device comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

receiving the signal via two of the at least two bandwidth parts; and is

25. A method of a communication device for communicating via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions that are not always active, the method comprising:

receiving a signal using the non-default bandwidth portion;

26. Circuitry for a communication device for communicating via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions that are not always active, the communication device comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

receiving a signal using the non-default bandwidth portion;

27. A method of operating a communication device that communicates via a wireless access interface, the method comprising:

28. Circuitry for a communication device for communicating via a wireless access interface, the communication device comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

29. An infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

transmitting a signal to one of the communication devices using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, wherein the at least two bandwidth portions at least partially overlap in frequency resources of the carrier bandwidth and in time resources of the wireless access interface, and wherein the signals are decoded separately.

30. A method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the method comprising:

31. Circuitry for an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network and for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

32. An infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions that are not always active, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

transmitting a signal to one of the communication devices using the non-default bandwidth portion;

deactivating one of the non-default bandwidth portions; and is

Preferentially transmitting the signal to the deactivated ones of the non-default bandwidth portions via other ones of the non-default bandwidth portions rather than transmitting the signal via the default bandwidth portions.

33. A method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of bandwidth portions each being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions which are not always active, the method comprising:

deactivating one of the non-default bandwidth portions; and is

34. Circuitry for an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network and for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the wireless access interface comprising a plurality of bandwidth portions, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface, the plurality of bandwidth portions comprising a default bandwidth portion and at least two non-default bandwidth portions that are not always active, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

deactivating one of the non-default bandwidth portions; and is

35. An infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to:

receiving, from one of the communication devices, an indication of a capability of the communication device to receive or transmit signals from or to the infrastructure equipment using at least two of a plurality of bandwidth portions of the wireless access interface, each bandwidth portion being smaller than and within a carrier bandwidth of the wireless access interface.

36. A method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the method comprising:

37. Circuitry for an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment for communicating with one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination to: